Cape American grabbed an early lead, then rallied late to snap a 3-3 tie Friday night en route to an 8-6 victory over Niceville in Pool A at the 9-10 Baseball State Tournament at Pinellas Park.

Levi Shuck homered in the late innings and Danny Valdes did not allow an earned run pitching the last three innings to help Cape pad its lead and secure the Pool A winner’s spot in the semifinals.

Cape wraps up pool play at 10 a.m. Saturday against Arlington, then plays its semifinal game at 3 p.m. trying to advance to Sunday’s title game.

In Thursday night’s opening game, Cape scored all the runs it needed in a second-inning surge to beat Viera 6-5.

Cam Hoines started that rally with a leadoff double. Later, with two runs home, Shuck finished off the scoring with a grand slam home run. Shuck, Cape’s starting pitcher, staked the team to a 6-0 lead that Trey Koza, Tony Rios and Barron Northrop made stand up for the victory.

Koza led Cape’s six-hit offense with a pair of singles.

In the Little League Softball State tournament at Port St. Lucie, Cape Coral got off to a successful start, sweeping three wins in pool play to nail down a spot in Saturday’s semifinals at 11 a.m.

Cape outscored its three opponents 17-1, tossing two shutout wins.

“I’m very pleased with our hitting,” said Cape coach Scott Peterson. “We took extra batting practice before both games and we hit better than we have in all our previous tournament games.”

Cape opened Thursday with a 2-0 win over host Port St. Lucie, followed by 8-0 and 7-1 wins Friday over DeFuniak Springs and Mims, respectively.

Krista Sciulla, and Becky Sullivan delivered four hits apiece in Friday’s games while Gillian Takais and McKenzie Corbitt added three hits apiece. Several others contributed two hits apiece. Sciulla and four other pitchers limited DeFuniak and Mims to a total of seven hits.

Cape (3-0) faces Windermere at 11 a.m. Saturday in the semifinals, looking to advance to the state championship game at 11 a.m. Sunday.

All games in the Junior Baseball Section 6 at Fleishman Park were rained out Friday. Hancock opens play at 9 a.m. Saturday.